Russia Archive

Dear Friends, My biography of Angelica Balabanoff, The Strange Comrade Balabanoff: The Life of a Communist Rebel has been published at McFarland publishers after more than 4 years of intensive work. I’m the happiest personin the world. About Angelica. Born in 1878 to a wealthy Ukrainian family, Angelica Balabanoff broke ties with her parents and left for Europe to become one of the leading female socialists of the early 20th century. Just five feet tall, plump and plain, she was rumored to be a lover of Mussolini, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin. Returning to Russia at the beginning of the October Revolution, she became one of the few women to occupy high-ranking positions within the all-male Bolshevik government, later fleeing Russia in disagreement with Lenin’s politics. She was accused by European and American secret services of promoting communist propaganda, and by the Soviets of disloyalty. She lived in small dormitory-like rooms, moving on average every two years with her two suitcases of important documents. She died in Rome at the age 96, concluding her 65-year career by supporting Giuseppe Saragat in his quest to become president of Italy. During her nomadic life, state and police agencies in the countries she visited compiled documents on her. The author draws on this extensive, scattered archive in this first biography of Balabanoff. Click here to order on Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Hope you will like the book!!!

I hope you liked my first article about Louise Berger written within the series of articles about the Red Rebels. Today I would like to say a few words about Raya Dunaevskaya whose 105th birthday we celebrated two weeks ago (a real revolutionary, Raya was born on Labour day – May 1). I came across Raya Dunaevskaya while writing my book, a biography of Angelica Balabanoff, The Strange Comrade Balabanoff: The Life of a Communist Rebel, due to be published by McFarland in September. Both women were good friends. Unfortunately, due to the lack of space in my book, I was unable to write about Raya. Raya Dunaevskaya was born in 1910 in a small village, Yaryshev, in the Vinnitsiya area, at the time a part of the Russia Empire, today’s Ukraine. (Regretabbly I did not find any photos of her which are copyright free and which could be published in my blog.) Raya’s fate was unusual from the start. At the aged of 12 she immigrated with her family to the U.S. where she joined the communist movement as a child, becoming an active member in the American Communist Party youth organization. She was expelled at age 18 and thrown down a flight of stairs after suggesting to her comrades that they should find out Trotsky’s response to his expulsion from the Soviet Communist Party. A year later she joined a group of independent Trotskyists in Boston. She also advocated for birth control and legal abortion. In 1937, when she […]

I’m starting a new series of articles about Red Rebel personalities in history. The aim is to tell about lives of those whose names have been largely forgotten. Nonetheless they all lived unique, interesting and at times curious lives. I came across most of these personalities while writing my book, a biography of Angelica Balabanoff, due to be published by McFarland in September. During her life, Angelica met many people, who wanted to make a difference, change society and leave a mark in history. Due to the lack of space many of them are not mentioned in my book. Nevertheless their breathtaking life-stories are worth to be told. The heroine of my first article is Louise Berger. I do not know whether Angelica knew her personally but she must have heard about Louise and they certainly had a few friends in common. Louise Berger was born in Latvia, at that time a part of Russia. The exact dates of her birth and death are unknown. The official sources say that she has been born at the beginning of 1890s. But it might have been earlier. Around 1905 she moved to Western Europe and eventually to the US where she became friends with a renowned anarchist Emma Goldman. A member of the Anarchist Red Cross, Louise was one of the founders of Latvian Anarchist Group. Not much is known about her life in the US until 1914 when a self-made bomb had prematurely exploded in her apartment in New York. It […]

January 7th was The Orthodox Christmas Day in Russia! So Merry Orthodox Xmas! To start the New Year here is the list of the 2014 best books about Russia (Published by Anastasia Borik, Dec 15.2014)* In our annual review of the “must-read” books of the year about Russia, we’ve included a list of the books that help to explain the inner workings of Russia’s foreign policy and economy. 2014 was so saturated with Russia-related global political events that it could hardly have failed to heighten the appeal of writers, journalists and academics trying to making sense of Russia’s new geopolitical influence. Books on our must-read list for 2014 included several new works that analyze the “new Cold War,” trace the trajectory of Vladimir Putin’s presidency, and suggest a possible way forward for the Russian state in 2015 and beyond. 1. The Colder War: How the Global Energy Trade Slipped from America’s Grasp By Marin Katusa (Wiley, November 10, 2014) This book on energy by Marin Katusa, who has devoted many years to such “problem” areas as Iraq, Kuwait, Colombia, Ukraine and Russia, is notable for several reasons. First, the emerging global changes in the oil and gas market have become particularly evident only in recent months, and Katusa’s book is one of the first full-fledged works to treat the topic in detail. Katusa’s book tells not only about the most current developments in the energy field, but draws apposite links with the recent shifts in the geopolitical landscape. Russia is seeking […]

From the Article by By Ksenia Galouchko Nov 12, 2014 (Bloomberg News on-line)* Russia is weighing the sale of its first inflation-linked bonds as investors shun regular debt auctions amid the fastest surge in consumer prices since 2011. Linkers would give investors a hedge against inflation that reached 8.3 percent in October, the result in part of the ruble’s 29 percent plunge this year against the dollar. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced the possible sale two days ago at a meeting in the State Duma. The government has sold about one third of the 459 billion rubles ($9.8 billion) of bonds it planned to issue this year as inflation jumped and the economy teetered on the brink of a recession amid international sanctions tied to theUkraine conflict. Selling linkers could lure buyers concerned that the value of their fixed-income assets is being eroded, while also creating a market for investors’ inflation expectations, according to Ivan Tchakarov at Citigroup Inc. “Bonds tied to inflation are fully justified given investor interest in protecting the value of their assets,” Konstantin Nemnov, the head of fixed income at TKB BNP Paribas Investment Partners inSt. Petersburg, said yesterday by e-mail. They “should be of interest,” and help “the government as it seeks new sources of funding,” he said. The Finance Ministry canceled its fifth auction in a row yesterday, citing “unfavorable market conditions,” according to a statement on its website. Ruble Slump The government will prepare the “legal basis” this year for the sale of linkers before testing the market’s appetite for […]

Dear Reader, Let me tell you that after a long grey and rainy Summer, we are finally having some good weather here in Paris. So to celebrate the Summer I decided to make the Cold Beet Russian Soup. Russian cuisine is delicious but can be rather time-consuming. It also demands a lot of different ingredients as well as time to make it. For this reason it is often prepared in large quantities to be consumed for 4 or 5 days in a row which can also get tiring. This easy-to-make recipe of the Cold Beet Soup, which is sooo agreeable during the hot summer months, makes a difference. The secret is to use the bottled beet soup which is often available in : large supermarkets, Russian / Eastern European Food stores / Bio shops. Ingredients for 4 people: 2 Bottles of beet soup / 4 Boiled eggs / 1 Cucumber / 4-6 Radish / Chives and dill to taste / Crème Fraîche To Make it: Chop cucumbers, radish, as well as cooked and peeled hard-boiled eggs, mince chives and dill. Put a handful of each product into a plate Pour over the beet soup, add 1 tbsp of Crème Fraîche, mix and serve. Enjoy it! And let me know how you liked it!

A great and fun article to read by Halia Pavliva and Elena Popina Source /Bloomberg /news I ususally do not repost – but I think many of you will enjoy reading it July 24 (Bloomberg) –- Bloomberg View Columnist Leonid Bershidsky discusses the world’s impression of Russia and what Putin can do to reverse the negative public opinion. He speaks to Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.” (Source: Bloomberg) As Karen Peterson posed for a picture beside a set of matryoshka dolls in the Russian Tea Room, the midtown-Manhattan restaurant founded by anti-Bolshevik immigrants in 1927, she was in no mood to talk about Vladimir Putin. “I love Russian food, not Russian politics,” said Peterson, a New Yorker who was dining with a friend. “There is much more to Russia than Putin.” Half a world away from the bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine that is ensnaring Russia in its worst diplomatic standoff with the U.S. since the Cold War, business is booming at the Russian Tea Room. Early one afternoon this week, tables were packed with people picking through a menu highlighted by items like the $295 golden osetra caviar, $38 chicken Kiev and $25 Beluga vodka shots. Since the crisis began with Putin’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula in March, some out-of-town tourists have come looking to talk politics, hostess Anna Zinenko said. The Russian-speaking clients have gone quiet on the conflict, a subject made even more sensitive by last week’s downing of a passenger flight that killed 298 […]